This is why I don't think you should be satisfied with a 40 foot cast.

Your rod is 9 feet long. You should be using a 9 foot leader. Add the 30 feet of your WF 5 wt fly line that is the sweet spot for your rod, and you have 9 + 9 + 30 or 48 feet. Even if you deduct about 4 feet for slop and slack, you still have a cast of 44 feet with just the 30 feet of fly line.

What I am trying to illustrate is that a 40 foot cast does not even require the minimum amount of line the rod is rated for.

The potential of your rod is to cast that WF line well into the running line. You can get much better with practice but you need to practice correctly. Find a mentor or a teacher that can you improve. Improving is not hard with the right instruction. I had one of the best.

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Regards,

Silver

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy